Hitch Hiking/ Hitch Biking/ Bitch Biking

Leaving Ensenada marked the end of our vigorous bike touring. After climbing 10 miles out of town with no end in sight, we finally said "fuck it" and stuck our thumbs out. Hitching a ride with our bikes was surprisingly easy. More than half of the vehicles on the road were pick up trucks, many of which had empty beds. We caught a ride from a Mexican guy in a cowboy hat who was headed for San Matias, about halfway between Ensenada and San Felipe and near the top of the mountains.

The next morning after a very cold night, we bombed down through the beautiful high desert to the Gulf of California. When we interesected with route 5 (the main road between Mexicali and San Felipe), we were still about 50 miles from San Felipe, all of which was through flat hot desert. We decided to get another ride, this time from some guys in a Corona truck delivering a load of beer. After a couple hours of relaxing at the beach, we headed further south to Puertecitos.

The ride to Puertecitos was probably the best hitch hiking experience I've ever had. We left San Felipe with less than an hour of daylight and had resigned to camping out in the desert if we were unsuccessful. On the contrary, the third car that passed us picked us up. A group of fisherman towing a boat to Puerticitos threw are bikes in the boat and we hopped in after them. The whole 2 hour ride we sat in the boat under the stars and the fisherman continually passed us beer, cigarettes, snacks, and blankets to stay warm. At a few points, they hopped into the back to talk to us. I've never experienced such genrosity and kindness in a ride!

There are a few stories that Josh tells over and over again, partially because of his enthusiasm for them and partially because of his memory. One of those stories that I've heard about a dozen times is of sitting in the hot springs in Puerticitos with whales going by just a rock's throw away. Needless to say, I had very high expectations for this place. It turned out that there were a few difficulties there: First of all, when Josh lived there he lived inside the hot springs complex. He wasn't aware that people who don't live there have to pay to use the hot springs and pay even more to camp there. We managed to haggle the gate keeper from $10 down to $1.50 with a promise that we would not spend the night there. Then we had to find a place to camp. The only sandy beach in the area is in the hot springs complex, and the rest of the shore is jagged rock. We finally found an abandoned property with a concrete foundation to sleep on.

The next morning, slightly disapointed, we headed up to the one store in town to try and find hot water for coffee. At the store, a woman picking up water invited us to her house where she would boil us some water. Her house was a decently sized concrete box with another concrete box with a kitchen in it. She lived there with her husband and 5 kids. They were all incredibly friendly and welcoming, and on top of making us a huge pot of coffee she cooked us a pretty hefty breakfast. She also pointed us towards a more comfortable place to camp. The shoreline on the other side of town was still rocky, but featured some flat slabs to sleep on.

That night, we successfully snuck into the hot springs where we ran into Josh's friends from Ensenada. They invited us to there camp where we drank beer and relaxed by the fire. The next morning, we hung out with them more, stopped by the family's house for lunch, and headed back up to San Felipe.

We stayed in San Felipe for 3 nights, with nothing too exciting to speak of. The town is mostly old Americans who lived in mobile home communities there. We stayed longer mostly because I was doing so well selling crafts. We did meet one American named Steven who was staying there in his camper. He made us dinner and coffee the next morning and told us stories about his travels in India and the Sinai.

2 days ago we headed up to Mexicali to ride trains south. We are staying with a couch surfing connection of Josh's in an orphanage/Korean Christian mission. It's our first time sleeping in beds in nearly 2 months. We are pretty comfortable, but we'll probably be heading south in a couple days to see Copper Canyon!